No Place Like Home
by Cate's Creative Chaos
Summary: Elphaba struggles to get over her fears of being on the run again, and fights the challenges of her life after her name is cleared. When Fiyero takes her home to his family's palace in Vinkus, she is welcomed to the family and struggles to open herself up to them, to let herself be loved. Some cute Fiyeraba.


"Yero, are you sure it's okay that I'm here?" Elphaba asked awkwardly. "Yes Fae, now that your name is clear you can go anywhere, especially Vinkus." Fiyero reassured her again. "No, I mean your parents house... or, a, palace... my name might be cleared, but I'm no royalty, your parents probably hate me, like the rest of Oz probably still does. I made them think you were dead, I did that, I put them through that hell, people don't just get over things like that." Elphaba argued to Fiyero. "Listen Fae, you already read the letters, I explained everything to them in detail, they understand, they won't hate you. My family is pretty chill." Fiyero drilled. Elphaba sighed and dropped her head onto Fiyero's shoulder as the carriage began to come a halt. Elphaba's head flew up once again. "Are we here already. Oh Oz, that place it huge, you do not live here. Fiyero, tell me you don't live her oh my Oz!" Elphaba exclaimed, her face pressed against the window. She turned to him agape, then pressed against the window to try and get a better view. "Yeah, I live here." Fiyero chuckled.

Walking up the long cobblestone walk to the entrance of the beautiful palace was like walking a plank that either lead to a deep ocean of sharks, or a bed of pillows for Elphaba. It could go either way, The king and queen of Vinkus, Fiyero's parents, could immediately tell her off and order her out of their home, or they could accept her and take her in.

Elphaba was so lost in her own head that when her deep thoughts were interrupted by the high pitched shrieks of a child, Elphaba nearly jumped out of her skin. "Oh, did I ever mention I have two sisters?" Fiyero said as they turned around and saw a little girl in a green sundress spiriting towards them. When she was close enough, Fiyero scooped her up and spun around with the little girl, she giggled and latched onto Fiyero. "Fifi I missed you so much!" she exclaimed, hugged her brother tightly. Elphaba smiled at the adorable reunion. Fiyero stood up, holding the little girl on his hip. "Edith, This is my good friend Elphaba. Elphaba, this is my sister, Edith. She just turned six!" Fiyero introduced. "Seven! I just turned seven!" Edith laughed. "What!?" Fiyero joked, "You're so big!" He spun her around again.

Edith had the same bright blue eyes as Fiyero, but she had light, bleach blonde silky hair. "Hi Elphaba! I heard you liked green, so I wore this for you." Edith explained, holding out the skirt of her dress in Fiyero's arms. "Well, your dress is beautiful, and yes, I guess I like green." Elphaba said. "Edith, you may have heard that she is green." Fiyero said, making sure to mention that before Edith said something any little kid might say. Elphaba just stood there smiling. Edith leaned into her brother, "Fifi, she's pretty, do you like her?" she tried to whisper, glancing at Elphaba a few times. "Yeah, I do." Fiyero 'whispered' back. Edith giggled and gave Elphaba a wide grin.

Fiyero, Elphaba and Edith continued to make their way to the palace entrance in the sweltering Vinkus heat. "Wait, Yero, you said you had two sisters?" Elphaba realised. "Yeah, the other one is a teenager, Fleur is fifteen." Fiyero laughed. "You guys all have a big age gap." Elphaba stated. "Yeah I was eight when Fleur was born, sixteen when Edith was." Fiyero said. "Nessa was born when I was three, and I thought we had a fairly big gap." Elphaba said.

When the couple and Edith reached the door, guards eyed Elphaba wearily. "Ma'am," one of them stopped her. "I'll hold onto that for you." he said, motioning toward her broom which she held in her hand. Elphaba looked at Fiyero, then handed the broom to the guard. Fiyero rolled his eyes. "How about I hold it, if you really don't trust her." Fiyero said to the guard. "Yes your majesty." The guard said quietly and they continued into the palace, Elphaba's broom in Fiyero's hand.

Elphaba expected to walk into a grand hallway with paintings and candles, or some sort of throne room, she did not however expect to see a perfectly modern entryway, with a shoe closet and coat rack, (though coats weren't needed this time of year.)

They walked into a big beautiful, modern living room then, where a middle age made and women sat together, when they heard people walk in both whipped their heads around, seeing who it was, the king and queen jumped off the couch and ran to their only son. "Fiyero! I'm so glad to see you!" his mother said. Fiyero put down Edith and hugged his parents. "Welcome home Fiyero!" his father greeted. The king and queen weren't quite what Elphaba expected. She had expected a proper and middle aged couple, his mother with a tight bun and his father with short combed hair, both with crowns on their heads. Fiyero's mother and him looked a lot alike, with similar bone structure and the same sandy blonde colour hair, hers sweeping just onto her shoulders, expect she had dark brown eyes. She queen simply wore a pair of khaki colour Capri pants and a orange blouse Fiyero's father had greying hair that must have been bleach blonde at one point, and a small beard on his chin, and the same blue eyes as Edith and Fiyero. he wore cargo shorts and a blue polo shirt.

Neither wore crowns.

When the family finished their reunion, the king and queen seemed to notice Elphaba standing awkwardly off to the side. Fiyero jumped to her side. "Parents, this is Elphaba." he introduced her. Elphaba managed a nervous smile and a little wave. Fiyero's mother grinned at her, a slight bit of pity in the smile. She stepped forward and opened her arms. "Welcome to the family Elphaba. I'm Angie." she said, offering Elphaba a hug. Elphaba hesitates, but then chuckles and accepts the hug from queen Angela of Vinkus. When the two women let go, Fiyero's father put a hand on Elphaba's shoulder. "I'm Peter. Welcome to our family Elphaba." he said. Fiyero had told his parents in several letters what had happened to Elphaba's family, and he even told them a little bit about Elphaba's harsh childhood, only what Elphaba was comfortable with of course, so Fiyero's family wanted to make sure she felt welcome. Elphaba nodded a thanks as a teenage girl in a pink tank top and yellow pajama shorts strode into the room, tired looking. Fleur was a spitting image of her mother, they looked like and older and younger version of each other. Fleur had the same elegant face as her mother and deep brown eyes like her mother, identical bone structure and long, thick, healthy hair with a natural waviness that almost reached her hips. Fleur was a young Angie, and also bit of a female Fiyero.

Fleur look at Fiyero as if her eyes were deceiving her. "I thought you were coming Sunday?" she said, tiredly. "Nice to see you too, Flower. It is Sunday." Fiyero said. "I thought it was Saturday?" Fleur said, confused. "You slept through most of Saturday." Peter said. Fleur nodded, "I'm glad you're not dead and stuff Fiyero." she said, plopping onto the sofa. Fleur eyed Elphaba wearily. "You really are dating the witch, huh?" she said. Elphaba didn't know whether to be offended or not. "That's awesome." fleur smiled and closed her eyes, falling back to sleep. Fiyero grinned at his lazy and drowsy sister. The king and queen both rolled their eyes.

"You two can do what you please until 6, that's when dinner will be." Peter informed them. "Okay, I guess I'll just show Fae around." Fiyero told them, taking Elphaba's hand. The pair walked out of the room and down the hallway a little bit, once out of listening distance Elphaba leaned against the wall and sighed a breath of relief. "They like me." she smiled. "All of them like me. But how?" Elphaba said, bewildered by the possibility that someone besides Fiyero and Glinda could like her, sure her name was cleared, and Oz knew her not to be dangerous, that didn't mean they forgave her for the chaos she caused without even meaning too. "Not everybody holds grudges, anything that happened, it was Madame Morrible and the wizards fault, not yours, some people still haven't realised that, but also, a lot do realise that. I explained everything to my parents, they told me that they understood and even when Glinda had sent out her notice, they knew to forgive you. When I wrote them, they knew how much you meant to me, and how much you had gone through, so then they knew to make you feel welcome." Fiyero explained, wrapping an arm around her waist. Fiyero gave her a peck of a kiss on the lips and took her hand to continue walking.

After exploring almost every nook and cranny of the massive palace and climbing countless staircases, it seemed like there was nowhere left to look. "This is the last room. Also one of the biggest, I never came up here much but I had a feeling you might like it." Fiyero said as they approached a set of wooden double doors. Fiyero smirked as he pushed open both doors. Elphaba stepped into the huge room and was immediately in heaven. It was a beautiful library, with ladders lining the walls of countless book, and a spiral staircase leading down to another level. Elphaba stood glued to the stop, scanning the room with her eyes wide. "Can I?.." Elphaba stammered. Fiyero chuckled, then nodded giving her a small push. "Go on." he said. Elphaba zipped into the room and examined several book spines until she found one that intrigued her. Fiyero found a cozy couch and sat, watching his love in her happy place. Fiyero expected her to sit next to him and read, cuddled in his arms, yet he wasn't a whole lot surprised when instead she found the tiniest corner and cramped herself in a ball and began reading, blocking out the rest of the world. Fiyero could only imagine how much she missed her books while she was on the run.

Fiyero must have drifted off because he woke to Elphaba standing over him. "Hey, it's almost 5:30, should we head down?" Elphaba asked. Fiyero nodded drowsily. "Oh and, um, can I borrow these?" she asked, nodding to the stack of 5 books in her arms. Fiyero grinned. "Sure." he said rising off the couch.

The Tigelaar family and Elphaba all sat around a table, digging into the delicious pasta dish that Angie had prepared, apparently Angie and peter always took turns cooking because, despite the family's riches and royal status, they didn't believe in having others serve them which Elphaba thought was very considerate of them.

After dinner Fiyero's parents had Fleur clear the table and had suggested that Fiyero let Elphaba settle into Fiyero's room.

Late that night, Elphaba was reading, she hadn't been keeping track of time so when she checked the clock next to Fiyero's bed and saw that it was 3am and Fiyero was sound asleep next to her, she decided she'd go to the kitchen and get some water then try to sleep. Sleeping was hard for Elphaba lately, she'd wake at the tiniest noise, terrified that she would wake up and be in the dark forest, surrounded by gale force soldiers and witch hunters, all pointing guns and pitch forks at her. And she liked to have a glass of water at her bedside because if she woke up, a sip of water and a few deep breaths could calm her down and she'd be able to go back to sleep.

Elphaba trudged along the dark hallways of the palace, thinking it wouldn't be so hard to find her way to the kitchen, but there was a lot of different turns in the hallways. At some point Elphaba must have taken a wrong turn because she found herself in a wing of the palace that Elphaba didn't recognize. The end of the hall had an open door with light shining out. Elphaba strutted down the hall to investigate the room, when she looked in, she saw Fiyero's 15 year old sister Fleur, who earlier appeared to drowsy and too tired to communicate, but at the moment she looked wide awake, struggling to braid her hip length sandy blonde hair into two braids in front of the mirror. When Elphaba peeked in, she must have appeared in the mirror because Fleur jumped a little, startled. Elphaba quickly jumped from the doorway. "Sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I'm just looking for the kitchen to get a glass of water. I got lost and saw the light in here." Elphaba apologized shyly. "Oh that's okay, I can show you where it is if you'd like. " Fleur said, jumping out of her chair. "Oh, sure. Thanks." Elphaba said.

As the pair walked through the halls, Fleur decided to break the awkward silence. "I'm sorry about everything that happened to you." Fleur said, suddenly becoming very interested in the ends of her hair. "Don't be, it's over with. I'm over it." Elphaba lied. Everything that happened still plagued her with constant fear that she would have to go on the run again and once again, leave behind what she loves, just like before. It was a crazy thought that for the first time, she could finally be free. Elphaba had loved her sister with every piece of her being, and felt terrible saying so, but even at Shiz, Elphaba wasn't free, she had to care for Nessa instead of herself. The only point in her life when she felt free was the first time she flew on her broom, after that, reality had hit her that she'd now be on the run. Now Elphaba was no longer on the run, no longer had to bare her abusive father and be fully responsible for her younger, disabled sister. Only now, when she wasn't being held back by others, she was being held back by herself and her crippling anxiety of losing that freedom.

Though Elphaba didn't say of this to Fleur. "It's not over, you must be terrified, I would be too." Elphaba looked at her, shocked. "I'm fine." Elphaba squeaked. "Fiyero told us that you've never really had an easy life." Fleur said, peering up at Elphaba. "You could say that." Elphaba said. "Was it because you're green?" Fleur said awkwardly. Elphaba tried to sound nonchalant, "Well, my skin always seemed to be the root of the problem." she said. Fleur nodded. "For the record, none of us care about your skin colour. We care that you make Fiyero happy." Fleur said, giving Elphaba a small smile. Elphaba smiled back. "Thanks, that really means a lot." she thanked.

"Here's the kitchen." Fleur gestured to then grand kitchen. Elphaba found a glass and simply poured a glass of cold tap water. She stepped back out and continued walking back with Fleur. "So why were you awake anyway?" Fleur asked. "Oh, I was just reading and lost track of time." Elphaba answered honestly. Fleur nodded, then Elphaba realised something. "Wait, why were you awake this late?" Elphaba asked. "I'm pretty nocturnal, sleep all day, up all night." Fleur explained.

Fleur lead Elphaba all the way back to Fiyero's room to ensure she wouldn't get lost again. When Elphaba returned she looked at the clock at the bedside again. 3:31am. This place was so huge. Elphaba climbed under the covers and snuggled in next to her sleeping lover and immediately fell asleep.


End file.
